Building a Core Leadership Team

If you want your ministry to grow you need to learn how to expand your capacity.  The key factor to building your influence and increasing your impact is by investing in a core leadership team.

Courtesy of Ashley MacKinnon/Creative Commons License

We all like the idea of a core leadership team, but where to find these people seems near impossible.  While it won’t necessarily happen overnight, it is doable.  You just need to have faith, patience and:

LOOK FOR YOUR THREE

Start by asking God to send you the right people.  Find time to mingle on the weekend, reach out to parents and key members of your community.  The more people you come across the better your chances of finding a core of three.

When you look for your three make sure they are:

• Trustworthy.

• High capacity.

• Independent.

• Sold out for the vision.

Why three?  Because managing three people is easy and that’s what Jesus did (James, John and Peter).  Get to know the people around you and persistently ask God to bring them into your life.

GIVE THEM PERMISSION TO LEAD

When you find your three give them permission to lead by allowing them to:

• Create a program or a system.

• Fail and learn from those failures.

• Manage other individuals.

Do not assume that they will do this.  Find time to personally ask them to take ownership.  If they say yes, they’ll embrace it and know that you trust them.

LISTEN TO THEIR FEEDBACK

A core team will trust you if they feel like you listen to them.  Whenever evaluating an event or program take time to sit down and gain their feedback.  Use their perspectives as a way of shaping what you do.

Encourage them to be honest, even if the truth hurts.  To be receptive thank God that He’s put them in your life.  Embrace their ability to make you wiser.

PASS ON THE BURDEN

As you build your core team, encourage them to find their own.  Not only will it make them stronger as leaders but it will create a succession plan.  The more you can grow leaders who are growing leaders the more efficient your ministry will become.

To pass on the burden you need to repeat the vision over and over again.  You need to ask them to invest in others and show them how it’s done.

Building a core team takes time and patience.  Treat them as your most precious resource. Invest in them, love them and pray for them.  Youth ministry is not meant to be done on your own so focus on building your core.